Colorism: Black People and Skin Color Essay

Growing up as a youth being in an interracial family, I endlessly experienced prejudice whether it was inside my home or out on the street. My have was an African-American, his family was pass judgment but all could see that they praised the fact that my kowtow was 5-6 make outs luminousness than that of my other cousins.This of course caused unresolved issues, issues that couldnt and wouldnt be bubbleed about among us as children, but later on became deep conversation filled with tears and understanding because we were finally equal to get from under the stigma that our parents were engulfed in because their parents had subjected them to the same treatment. While on the other hand, my vexs side of the family is Irish, German, and Indian. They despised the fact that my set out was an African-American man.I would hear my mothers mother talk badly of my father. She even went as far as not to admit my father in her home. She was the hardest on me out of all the grand children when it came to disciplining us, because my fathers climb tone was that of a black man. They also tended to privilege my mothers eldest daughter because her father wasnt an African-American. As a child growing up I experienced two positive and negative feedback for my skin assumption. But I must(prenominal) check out that it was about 85% positive when not in the presence of my mothers mother.Note I dont say grannie because she was hardly ever a grandmother toward s me, just because my skin color was that of a black girl, while my cousins were mostly fair skinned. Colorism in the United States is a stigma that wont get elevate because of what slavery has embedded in the minds of African-Americans. According to wikipedia. com, Colorism is trammeld as a Black-on-Black racism, based on skin-tone. The discrimination is based on the idea that a persons worth is directly related to the color of his or her skin, valuing lighter tones over darker tones.Its commonly known that Colo rism plagued the Black connection after slavery and done the early to mid-twentieth century. In the early 1900s, many black organizations, including colleges, practiced the brown makeup bag test when accepting new members. If a persons skin was not lighter than a brown paper bag, they would be denied admittance. Though the brown paper bag test is out of date and frowned upon as a mordant moment in African-American history, the ideals behind the practice still lingers in the African-American community.Modern- daytime Colorism rears its ugly head in the day to day lives of African-Americans every day. This issue has affected every hue or shade of blackness within the African-American community. In The Color Complex by Midge Wilson, Wilson addresses the issue by tracing the origin of Colorism, To t bleed the origins of the color complex, we must return to the year 1607 when three ships sailed in Chesapeake Bay, stopping at Jamestown, Virginia, to express the first English colony i n the newfangled World..It was a new land and a new era filled with possibilities. What exponent have been unthinkable in Europe and Africa was an everyday occurrence in the wilderness. Miscegenation, or race mixing, became widespread as Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans mixed their generator and substance to produce a kaleidoscope of skin tones and features. But these primary race groupings differed sharply in their civil liberties and political freedoms. Subtle variations in port took on enormous consequence in meaning, especially among Negros, (Wilson, pg. 9).With the emphasis of color being placed in the forefront of the black community, blacks have allow this issue set the stage for ignorance for over four hundred years. The do of these actions have trickled down into some of the most prominent black organizations that define our community and our blackness, such as the NAACP, Jack and Jill, of import Kappa Alpha Sorority, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Alpha Phi Al pha Fraternity, and etc. It is no secret that these types of organizations were created in order to create a faux safe haven for the wealthiness of the light-skinned mulattos.In the early years these organizations were called Blue Vein societies, because in order to quote belong, the test of how light you were was could you see your blue veins through your skin? And if they could, you were in. Works Cited Colorism. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 1 Nov 2009, 2252 UTC. 2 Nov 2009 . Wilson, Midge, Russell Kathy. The Color Complex The Politics of Skin Color Among African Americans. New York Harcourt Publishers, 1992.